In the midst of a national disaster, how do brands respond? Let's take a closer look at some of the survival stories behind the most meaningful brands in Japan following the 2011 disaster.

When brand managers talk about disasters, thankfully it's not usually on the scale of the crisis faced by Japan in March 2011. While not undermining the tragic effect on the population, we wanted to take a deeper look at how brands in Japan reacted, and the impact of their strategy and communications during the disaster.

Havas Media's Meaningful Brands research* reveals that the Japanese population remained stoic following the disaster. The overwhelming sense of national pride and faith in the collective remained intact.

Japanese people believe the responsibility to help the recovery of their country should be shared between the government (61% of the population), National Companies (60%) and the Japanese themselves (57%). They rely to a lesser extent in the international community, NGOs and charities (14%).

Even though more than half of the population appreciated it would take more than five years for the country to fully recover, more than 37% of the population expects to spend more in the subsequent years following the disaster. Moreover, Japanese people seem ambivalent about rewarding companies that contribute to the recovery – only 19%. This is likely to be derived from the fact that most people expect national companies to take a leading role in the recovery and therefore see these efforts as a civic duty that these companies have towards their country.

These results strike a conundrum for brands. If public sentiment is so stable, and the expectations so focused on governments and national brands, what is the role for brands when a disaster of this magnitude hits? How should they react to such an economically and socially destabilising situation?

I want to take a look at four case studies of brands that reacted with extraordinary socially minded strategies following the disaster and reflect on the impact to their brand value.

When the Japanese disaster struck on 11 March, Uniqlo, the fashion retailer, donated $25.6m to the Japanese Red Cross to help those impacted by the earthquake and tsunami in north-eastern Japan. Uniqlo's founder and president of Fast Retailing, Tadashi Yanai, also donated $12.2m. The brand sent thousands of Uniqlo products, including jeans, coats, towels and 300,000 pairs of its Heattech thermal underwear to disaster victims.

Japanese consumers have also been encouraged to donate clothing at all stores in the Fast Retailing group, which includes Uniqlo, Theory, Comptoir des Cottonniers, g.u, and Princess Tam Tam. Fast Retailing customers worldwide could donate money in special contribution boxes at any of the group's 2,200 international stores. Uniqlo reacted in a very comprehensive way – they were fast, personal (via the CEO) and acted as an enabler. They tied in the product itself by donating relevant clothing at a critical time of need.

One personal and digitally collaborative response was initiated by the CEO of Japan's internet conglomerate Softbank Corp. CEO, Masayoshi Son. He donated $120m of his personal wealth, plus his salary until he retires to help tsunami victims.

Son reached out to his Twitter audience and asked for suggestions on how Softbank could help additional victims. One follower suggested Softbank offer a free phone service to children orphaned by the disaster. Son embraced this idea and announced on Twitter that Softbank would provide orphaned children with a free phone and cellular service until they turn 18, so they could contact their friends and family members.

Softbank also offered to replace iPhones for customers whose handset was lost or damaged in the earthquake. Son's 10bn yen donation to the Japanese Red Cross and other non-profit organisations was the biggest by an individual to quake and tsunami victims. Bringing social media into the frame was a good move. Son was genuinely passionate about helping, and his audience and brand benefitted hugely from this generous and collaborative approach.

Sony began its relief efforts on 13 March 2011, with an initial 300m yen donation to the Central Community Chest of Japan. In addition, the company donated 30,000 radios, 500,000 batteries and 125 televisions for emergency use in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Diversifying away from their own product, but focusing on people's needs, 1,200 cartoon character blankets were sent to various shelters.

Sony employees were also encouraged to contribute to the relief efforts. Sony's group of companies around the world, including its electronics, entertainment and game subsidiaries established a special company-wide matching gift programme. Through this, employee contributions to relief agencies were matched, dollar for dollar, by the company. One week after the start of this initiative, approximately 40,000 Sony employees from 40 countries had collectively contributed more than 200m yen to the relief efforts. The program is still in progress.

Brands need to serve citizens, not consumers. This is especially important during times of national crisis. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters

The enabling element of Sony's response did not stop there – employees in Japan volunteered their time to assist the hundreds of thousands of people who had been displaced. For example, Sony's Sendai Technology Centre, which was severely affected by the tsunami, has instituted a volunteer program led by members of the company's soccer team, Sony Sendai FC, to interact with children at shelters throughout the region.

In another volunteer programme, Sony employees were helped to set up and support the operation of Sony video conferencing systems at an NGO working in the affected areas. The system was connected to various locations in which the NGO operates to facilitate effective communication. The company also sent groups of Sony employee volunteers to assist NGOs and local government groups with relief efforts.

Like Uniqlo, Sony also expanded its relief effort to its customer base by posting (on both the US and EU PS) blogs, which encouraged its users to make donations to the tsunami effort through their PlayStation wallets. In exchange for donations, users were offered a free theme for their consoles.

This was a smart move from Sony as many gamers feel a special bond with Japan, even if they've never travelled there. Sony leveraged this and used it to create a bigger sense of community between Japan, the Sony brand and the global gaming community.

The strategy adopted by Toyota worked on another interesting level – it included corporate donations, but the really meaningful part of this brand's response was the redesign of its operating strategy in the area.

Toyota's corporate response was fast and generous. They donate 300m yen (£2.4m) for educational help for children, and another 3myen to support the arts in Tohoku. But they also put all their technology and intellectual property to collective use. For example, Toyota's electric-gasoline hybrid car technology was utilised to help ease power shortages in the north-east of the country. Furthermore, Toyota Motor Corp donated emergency power supply systems linked to its Prius hybrid cars to various states in the Tohoku region.

Rather than ask its workers around the world to donate – Toyota offered their workers in Japan the opportunity to collect their full salary while helping the collective efforts and focusing on helping their hard-hit suppliers get back to production. By paying their workers to help their suppliers, Toyota got people on the ground to aid the cleanup. In the process, they set about building strong relationships with local communities and suppliers that will pay dividends for years.

One of Japan's biggest problems following the disaster was diminished national power production. Helping reduce electricity demand, Toyota curtailed or eliminated use of air conditioning. They also took a long-term approach to power usage and minimised the use of lighting in its plants as much as possible. A policy was implemented of unlit hallways and half-lit offices in Toyota buildings in Japan. To save on electricity, workers were asked to take the stairs instead of the lift.

Finally, Toyota took a flexible approach to everyone who worked with them – engineers worked diligently to reduce the number of parts bottlenecks, using a wide array of techniques. Some suppliers with fully operational plants were given temporary contracts to produce parts that competitors couldn't build. Struggling suppliers were given engineering and disaster assistance to help solve problems at the plant. They even managed the options of vehicles on offer to global consumers to reduce demand for critical parts that could be put to better use in struggling Japanese regions.

Toyota said that full production wouldn't resume until 2012. Amazingly, the company achieved full production capacity within seven months of the disaster.

These are all examples of what we call Meaningful Brands. They did not sit back and wait for governments to move (which would have been an easy thing to do). These brands redefined their role in society. They have taken their them outside the traditional view of brands and consumers and propelled themselves into a wider relationship between brands, society and citizens. Many also used social media as an enabler. So often the preoccupation with transparency created by the social revolution misses the point. This is a great example of how social media can be used in a more proactive way if leveraged for the greater good.

This pronounced response is consistent to our Meaningful Brands positioning. Over the past four years we tracked brands with this approach (ie who focus on improving wellbeing and society) and see that they constantly outperform the stock market. In a situation such as the Japanese disaster, this meaningful mindset comes into its own.

This redefinition of the role of these brands in Japanese society will lead to meaningful relationships with Japanese consumers for many years to come.

The Meaningful Brand index – Havas Media's measurement of a brand's perceived contribution to our quality of life and wellbeing – examined 20 top brands in Japan as part of a pilot project to understand consumer perceptions of brands following the disaster. Unsurprisingly, we see that many of the brands who instigated a social-based approach to assisting in the relief efforts saw high levels of brand attachment (how much consumers care if the brand ceased to exist).

For a society that has such a nationalistic view of brands, a meaningful approach to brand management has established above-average levels of brand attachment.

Toyota, which had one of the most meaningful responses to the disaster, ranked first, according to consumers, when asked to what extent the 20 brands studied contributed to the recovery of Japan. Not surprisingly, Toyota had also the highest level of brand attachment out of the 20 brands Havas studied.

The Meaningful Brand Index measures the extent to which consumers feel brands have contributed to their quality of life and wellbeing on both personal and collective levels. Many of the brands with the highest scores in our Japan pilot study – including National brands such as Uniqlo, Panasonic, Kao Corp Toyota, and Sony, and International brands such as P&G and Coca-Cola – have great case studies that show a concerted meaningful approach to their strategy and communications following the disaster.

We would argue that such disasters put the relationship people have with brands under a microscope. This is true, even in countries that do not necessarily expect brands to play such a large role in society. Brands who focus on citizens rather than consumers will be the brands that survive.

*The pilot study in Japan analysed 2,787 consumers across 20 brands in Japan. Meaningful Brands took into account the views of 50,000 consumers and 300 brands across 14 countries.